Podcast Series with Professor Siobhan Mattison: Episode 2

Hi Everyone,

As always, we hope that everyone is doing well. We are curious to know if you enjoyed the first segment of the latest podcast series with Professor Siobhan Mattison. From my perspective, her outside perspective is very informative in understanding the cultures we are researching and is also very complementary to the previous podcasts in our series. In the current segment, Professor Mattison covers a number of areas, including the evolution of the human family, male and female-centric societies, technicalities in the definitions, and constructs of matrilineal vs. matriarchal cultures.

She sheds light on the evolutionary perspective of human behavioral ecology from a theoretical lens and compares it to the more practical perspective, which makes it more complex to determine the evolutionary root of contemporary human society. Professor Mattison also provides her perspective on the common model of human organization and the role of men and women, which is centered around a provider and supporter model. In particular, she highlights that if we understand that the landscape of human organization is wider than this model then it could potentially expand beyond the standard structure. She gives a very insightful anthropological view on male-centric societies, tying it to human subsistence. She further compares this to female-centric societies, tying the mother-child bond to the importance of women in such societies. She shares that many societies, at the core, were female-centric societies, especially in horticultural and fishing societies. Professor Mattison is an expert on kinship, and her technical definitions of matrilineal and matriarchal societies are worth watching if you are interested in getting clarity on the topic. Interestingly, in Professor Mattison’s experience, there is no known matriarchal society that has been matrilineal as well. However, the more we delve into cultures such as the Mosuo tribe, we can find some functional similarities to matriarchy.

Overall, this podcast is an extremely engaging series. I encourage everyone to watch it if you’re interested in the anthropological understanding of human family constructs and their potential evolutions.

I look forward to engaging you on the next podcast where we continue our conversation with Professor Mattison. In case you missed the first segment, it can be found on our Podcast webpage or you can read the summary in my previous blog.

Gabby